LE

I accepted for once it is a win/win situation, you can serve the extra two years if you want, or alternatively just put your notice in at 21 years and leave as normal. That's my reasoning anyway, whether I take up the option of the extra two years is still to be answered

War Hero

I took the two extra years, but then I firmly believe that in the next two years we will be out of both the 'Stan and Iraq. We will deploy an extra Div to Germany and the LOA will be increased by 75%. I then intend to spend my last 11 years in the land of milk and honey.

LE

I'm accepting for the same reasons as Timebandit. Currently i intend to chin it at 22 years however who knows what my situation will be (i reach 22 in just over 5 years time). I can chose to serve on for another 2 or chin it as i planned.

LE

Same detail, have about 7 years left, and will probably pull the pin for 22.

But you never know, kids may need a bit longer at school or maybe the Mrs can work a bit longer somewhere. The two years could come in handy.

I know of a fair few blokes who have moved to teh MPGS. One I know definitly only did it because he couldn't afford a house in the area, didn't want to stay in the area to settle any way, but the Mrs had a cracking job, just been promoted and been put on a course that would help her get a better job when they did move. He did 3 years on the gate, then retired... again. (on a WO2 22 year pension and a Pte's wage).

Another stayed for the kids. Stayed in until the kid had finished college (1 year I think) then did one.

Old-Salt

DII(F) contracts, lot's of guys are jumping ship from EDS at the moment and am hearing whispers that they are going to heavily cut back their presence in the UK.

Still getting a lot of muppets coming from EDS though, but with a few years experience of AD or exchange, tech background and a min of SC (DV preferred) you would start on a min of £350 a day as a tester or maybe even implementation engineer. Good design experience will get you £600 a day easily.

We all know that there are significant shortages in the old bums to seats ratio across a number of trades, so I would expect VEng will help to balance demand and supply. Like IS Ski Geek I'm not convinced that many supervisory-level people will want to go onto Stage 3, as it represents going from a thrusting, competitive field to one with little or no prospects for promotion. Why, for example, would someone who was already at WO1 opt to serve another 15 years at the same rank. OK he'd be the senior member of the mess and he would be metaphorically "bulletproof" from criticism from a huge chunk of the officer corps, but I would personally judge that to be a very selfish approach. In contrast, the commercial world is far more cut-and-thrust and competitive, so most people who make it to the top of their game in our trades (notwithstanding those who go onto the LE circuit) should be able to compete with confidence in that marketplace when they leave.

"I firmly believe that we should not march into Baghdad. To occupy Iraq would instantly shatter our coalition, turning the whole Arab world against us and make a broken tyrant into a latter-day Arab hero. Assigning young soldiers to a fruitless hunt for a securely entrenched dictator and condemning them to fight in what would be an unwinnable urban guerrilla war." George Bush Snr, A World Transformed, 1998

We all know that there are significant shortages in the old bums to seats ratio across a number of trades, so I would expect VEng will help to balance demand and supply. Like IS Ski Geek I'm not convinced that many supervisory-level people will want to go onto Stage 3, as it represents going from a thrusting, competitive field to one with little or no prospects for promotion. Why, for example, would someone who was already at WO1 opt to serve another 15 years at the same rank. OK he'd be the senior member of the mess and he would be metaphorically "bulletproof" from criticism from a huge chunk of the officer corps, but I would personally judge that to be a very selfish approach. In contrast, the commercial world is far more cut-and-thrust and competitive, so most people who make it to the top of their game in our trades (notwithstanding those who go onto the LE circuit) should be able to compete with confidence in that marketplace when they leave.